Mixin’ in the kitchen

Apartment Therapy is a great source for info on small spaces. Let’s face it — most apartments are small. That means getting clever with organization and use of space.

With my mind on kitchens, I was looking through some tiny apartments in Apartment Therapy to see what people have done with these spaces.

Apartment kitchens are usually pretty dull for two reasons — a) they are tiny, and b) they are full of things that are expensive to install and replace — appliances, cupboards, floors. So most apartment kitchens start off fairly…..pedestrian.

Go nuts.

Those white/almond cupboards with the wood trim? Fairly ubiquitous. This owner has kept the accessories white to add to the feeling of cohesion and spaciousness. It’s tidy and pleasant, and the upper cupboards go right to the ceiling rather than have that dust-collecting shelf at the top.

But there are obviously strict limitations. In this suite, they’ve put the kitchen in the space under the sleeping loft, which means it’s basically the foyer as well.

The owner has colour-coordinated the accessories, which is nice, but it’s clearly meant to be as unobtrusive as possible.

This tenant has managed to infuse some colour and pattern into the basic white of their kitchen with beautiful handles:

But some people infuse their spaces with their personalities by going all out with eccentric chachkis:

I sense a religious theme:

I think that’s a better use of space than putting your extra casseroles up there.

A studio suite in a basement has a lot to overcome. Renter Laura Lee has brightened her windowless kitchen with well, stuff:

Sometimes plain is a good thing. These renters have played off the white of their kitchen by keeping to silver and black — continuing the sleek modernism of the rest of their loft.

Even the rag rug keeps it clean and simple in the kitchen:

When we were planning our laneway, we wanted a nice kitchen. You have to compromise, but the kitchen was not the place we wanted to do that. Instead we sacrificed a “living room” for a more spacious cooking and eating area.

Want to see it?

Photo courtesy of Novell Design Build.

That huge counter with the waterfalled edge? We wanted that. It gives us a comfortable place to sit and eat, plus lots of room for cooking and baking (and sewing and writing blog posts on the laptop.)

You can see how light and bright it is.

Photo courtesy of Novell Design Build.

And there really is tons of storage. A pull-out spice shelf, appliance garage, plus deep drawers for our dishes and pots.

This is what it means to have a custom kitchen built just for us. I’m sure you will look at that kitchen and think “I would have done things differently.” Well you can! We wanted this, and we got it, thanks to good work from our designer, our builder, and our custom cabinet maker.

We change up the accessories to add more personality to the space. And we keep it very, very tidy.

The kitchen is the heart of the home, and we wanted one that would inspire us every day.